can someone explain to me like what blowbacks,spool vavle, ep, and all that is please just wanting to kno this stuff

bigred76

01-13-2007, 12:05 AM

Welp... This'll take a bit. I'll try to answer as much as I know without blathering about it for your sake. :D

First off, a link: marker animations (http://www.shockerowners.com/archive/index.php/t-11232.html). This shows most (although not all) of the common marker designs out there.

A blowback works by "blowing back" air to recock the striker on the sear. It's as simple as that. A sheerly mechanical operation. It's why Spyders/Spyder clones are so damned easy to tech. :cool:

Spool valves are markers like Ions, Shockers, and Matrices. They work with a single tube containing the valve, bolt, and firing chamber (although they have an LPR tube on Matrices). As the bolt moves forward inside the tube from the air pushing it behind from the solenoid, it passes a certain point which opens up the air to flow out the bolt and propel the paintball. This is held that way for a certain amount of time (called dwell), and then the solenoid reverses and pushes the bolt backwards, which also shuts off the main flow of air out the front of the bolt. It's extremely simple, but because of their design mostly require high dwell settings and thus are doomed to be inefficient (unless, like in the Ion's case, you add a QEV. Matrices slide by this rule, as well). Many players like this operation of markers because of it's "smoothness" and ease of tech. If something has gone wrong on one of these markers, it's an o-ring. Don't even have to worry about valves or cupseals: if it's leaking, rip it open and look for the messed up o-rings and lube it. :tongue:

EP means Electro Pnuematic. Markers such as the Intimidator, Planet Eclipse Ego, and System X NME. It normally has a twin tube design employed that has the ram and valve/poppet assembly in the lower, and bolt in the upper. An Angel would be classified under this as well, even though it has 3 tubes. The basic operation is that the solenoid pushes the ram (which is connected to the bolt by the bolt pin) forward, which pushes open the valve and fires the marker. The solenoid then pushes the ram back, closing the valve and opening the breech to load another ball. The valve on these type of markers DO NOT have air coming out the rear; they only direct air out of the bolt. It is a fairly reliable design, and many players like it because of that. There are break-offs of this family of paintball markers, and includes Promasters that use a spring in the ram assembly in one direction to assist the marker in either firing or recocking. This is known as "spring assisted EP."

An Autococking design is one that has the sear dropping, while at the same time activating a 3-way (a mechanical solenoid) via a rod connected to the trigger, which pushes the back block backwards. The back block will stay back so long as the trigger is held. The marker fires from a forward bolt position (also known as closed bolt). A variation of this is the Electronic Autococker (E2, Worrblade, etc). Instead of having a fully mechanical marker, it uses a sear-dropped just like on the Spyder E-Markers, and has wires running out to a solenoid where the 3-way was mounted. An extremely reliable marker, and won't break down very often. I haven't looked inside mine in more than a year, just ran oil through the ASA once in a while and wiped the bolt clean of paint when I chopped. They are finicky until you get them set right, however...